


remind me tomorrow

by thesexfiles



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Episode: s02e02 Been There Done That, F/F, First Kiss, First Time, Love Confessions, Pre-Relationship, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:14:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29450622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesexfiles/pseuds/thesexfiles
Summary: “What do you want to do today to make it different from...all the other todays that you’ve had?”The look Xena gives Gabrielle now is less of a grimace and more of a smirk. Gabrielle can feel heat rise to her cheeks, but she holds Xena’s gaze.-Set during "Been There, Done That." Nothing like a time loop to workshop your love confession.
Relationships: Gabrielle/Xena
Comments: 10
Kudos: 69





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tunemyart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tunemyart/gifts), [joey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joey/gifts), [9r7g5h](https://archiveofourown.org/users/9r7g5h/gifts), [brilliantfantasticgeronimo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilliantfantasticgeronimo/gifts), [rellephant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rellephant/gifts), [ManiacalShen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManiacalShen/gifts).



> I should let you know now that there isn't smut in chapter one, so if you're here to get your rocks off, you're gonna have to wait a little longer. Hope you enjoy anyway!
> 
> Huge shout-out to ManiacalShen for being my beta reader, and a massive thank-you to my DND group for encouraging me to actually write this fic. I'd been in a creative rut for a while, and y'all got me excited to write again!

Xena has been in a bad mood all day, and Gabrielle has no idea why.

For once, they got to sleep in a nice, warm barn on a soft bed of hay. For all her morning grumpiness, Gabrielle can’t deny that she got a great night’s sleep. But she looks at Xena and sees dark circles under her eyes, as though her warrior companion hasn’t slept in days. Those circles weren’t there yesterday, were they? She could swear they weren’t. 

Xena’s muttering to herself, too. Not a good sign. The last time she behaved like this, she was under the influence of the Furies. But they couldn’t be plaguing her again, right?

Well, stranger things have happened. Gabrielle reaches up and waves her hand in front of Xena’s face. Xena’s hand snaps up and catches her wrist.

“I’m trying to think, Gabrielle,” she says with an air of exasperation as though she’s already told Gabrielle a million times. 

“Want to let me in on it?” Gabrielle asks. “I’ve been known to have insight, every once in a while.” This last line comes out more petulant than she wants it to, but she can’t hide that she’s feeling a little hurt by Xena’s terseness. 

“I tried that already,” Xena says.

“Really? Because from what I can remember, you’ve said two words to me all day.”

Xena finally looks at Gabrielle, and her gaze softens.

“I’m sorry, Gabrielle. I’m having a - a weird day.”

“You can say that again.”

Xena lets out a small, pained laugh. 

“Tell you what, Gabrielle. Let me have this day to myself to think through my problem, and I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.”

Gabrielle considers this.

“How will you make it up to me?” She means for the question to come out innocently, but a blush rises to her cheeks after she hears herself. The blush deepens when Xena shoots her a smoldering look.

“Any way you want,” she says with a smile that would feel like it was meant for just Gabrielle if she hadn’t seen Xena give it to many men and women through their travels together. 

It’s all empty promises. If something were going to happen between them, it would have already happened. Gabrielle sighs and leaves Xena to her thoughts. 

* * *

Xena has been in a bad mood all day, and Gabrielle has no idea why.

She knows they went to sleep at the same time last night and woke up at the same time this morning, so there’s no reason the circles under Xena’s eyes should be this dark. And now Xena is muttering under her breath like a madwoman, and Gabrielle has concerns. 

“Xena?”

Xena grunts in reply but does not look at Gabrielle. 

“Is everything okay? You seem… off.”

Xena lets out an exasperated sigh, rolls her eyes, and flips away.

“Okay,” Gabrielle says to herself, “I guess I’ll just wait here.”

* * *

Xena has been in a bad mood all day, and Gabrielle has no idea why.

Well, from the sound of it from her ranting and raving, she’s stuck in some kind of “time loop” of which Gabrielle is completely unaware. She’s a little concerned this might be the work of the Furies, but why would they want to come after Xena again?

And when Xena was under the influence of the Furies before, she was at least self-aware enough to let Gabrielle in on it. So what Xena is saying now must be true. Xena would never lie to her. 

“Is there any way I can help?” Gabrielle asks, knowing before Xena answers that this is futile.

“Yes,” Xena says. “Stay out of the way.”

Gabrielle wraps her arms around herself. Xena walks away without a backwards glance.

* * *

Xena has been in a bad mood all day, and Gabrielle has no idea why. 

She won’t get out of bed. She won’t eat. She won’t talk to Gabrielle.

She knocked Joxer out with the blunt of her sword when he came in to wake them. Gabrielle is sure Xena has her reasons, but she wishes she would explain. 

“I’m going to go get us breakfast,” Gabrielle announces, “since _you_ destroyed the goose eggs Joxer brought us. Even goose eggs are better than nothing!”

“Don’t leave,” Xena says. “You’ll die if you do.”

“In this peaceful little town?” Gabrielle laughs. Then she gasps when Xena catches her by the wrist and pulls her back down into the hay, rolling toward her to look down into her eyes.

“Yes,” Xena says through gritted teeth. “Stay where you are.”

Xena must know something Gabrielle doesn’t. Her eyes look wild, her hair unkempt, as if she’s been tossing and turning. She still hasn’t let go of Gabrielle’s wrist, and she’s kind of pinning her down. A thrill runs through Gabrielle.

Xena seems to notice at the same time. She lets Gabrielle go and rolls back to her part of the haybed. 

“Just go back to bed and give me some time to think.”

Gabrielle rolls her eyes but, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, tries to fall back asleep. Now that she’s noticed her hunger, however, it’s all she can focus on. And the rumbling in her stomach grows louder by the minute, until she can’t stay still anymore.

“If there’s danger in this village, why don’t we do something about it?” Gabrielle asks.

“I’ve tried,” Xena says. “I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve tried, but - _Gabrielle_ -” she says Gabrielle’s name with such desperation, as if begging her to heed her words, “- this day keeps repeating, and I know I have to fix it, but I don’t know how.”

“The day is repeating?”

Xena sighs and puts her head in her hands. It must be serious - Xena is usually better at hiding her frustration.

“Well,” says Gabrielle, “couldn’t it have been a vision?”

Xena shakes her head. “It’s very real. I don’t know why you don’t remember, but it’s like you’re experiencing this day for the first time, every time. I’m the only one who remembers today. A full-on war is going to break out outside those doors.”

Gabrielle opens her mouth to suggest that perhaps Xena has been hit with a poison dart and that’s why she’s in this manic state.

“It’s not a poison dart, either,” Xena says. “It’s not Ares, it’s not the Fates or the Furies, and it’s not something I ate. I’ve tried everything, Gabrielle. I can’t get out of this loop.”

Gabrielle knows they got the same amount of sleep, but Xena looks tired. She could be dreaming, or it could be a delusion… Or maybe it’s true. Gabrielle looks at Xena’s fists, each clenching a fistful of straw at her sides, and decides to believe her.

“All right,” she says. “Well, what should we do?”

Xena shoots Gabrielle a pained look.

“I mean,” Gabrielle says, “what do you want to do today to make it different from...all the other todays that you’ve had?”

The look Xena gives Gabrielle now is less of a grimace and more of a smirk. Gabrielle can feel heat rise to her cheeks, but she holds Xena’s gaze.

In the end, it’s Xena who backs down. Gabrielle sighs inwardly. It’s always like this - the mounting tension, amounting to nothing.

As they sit together in silence, it dawns on Gabrielle that this would be a perfect opportunity for Xena to make a move, knowing that if things went wrong she could just wake up the next day with a clean slate. But would she do that? Or would she be too noble to take advantage of Gabrielle like that, knowing that if they spent the night (well, the _day_ ) together, Gabrielle would have no memory of it?

Or has Xena already done that, and found Gabrielle lacking? Is that why they’re lying here in silence when they could be doing something - anything - to fill it?

Her fear catches in her throat. She can handle not knowing how Xena feels, but the idea of Xena rejecting her is too painful. Which is why _she_ has never made a move. 

“Xena?”

“Mm?”

She doesn’t know how to say it. She closes her eyes and braces for impact.

“You know I love you, right?”

In the silence between them, Xena reaches out and takes Gabrielle’s hand.

“I love you too, Gabrielle.”

The way she says it - like it’s the simplest thing in the world - infuriates Gabrielle. She wrenches her hand out of Xena’s and sits up, glaring at her.

“No,” Gabrielle says, “you don’t. Not in _that_ way.”

Xena’s face is neutral, which makes Gabrielle angrier. 

“What makes you think that?” 

_I won’t remember this tomorrow_ , Gabrielle reminds herself. She can see what she must look like in her mind’s eye - bright red, angry and unsure, with tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. When she takes a deep breath, it catches in the middle. But she holds Xena’s gaze.

“Because if you did, you would have kissed me by now.”

A tear breaks free from the prison she’s been holding it in, but before it can fall all the way down her cheek, Xena’s hand is there to catch it, and then to cradle Gabrielle’s face. She has no right to be this tender when she knows she’s breaking Gabrielle’s heart.

“It’s never the right time, is it?” Xena says softly before pressing her lips to Gabrielle’s cheek where the tear’s track ended.

Gabrielle’s breath catches again, but this time not from a subdued sob. Unsure of what’s happening, she waits for Xena to say more. 

Xena kisses Gabrielle’s other cheek in the same spot, then her forehead. 

“There’s always someone around - Joxer, or Autolycus, or Callisto comes back, or we’re out at sea -”

“We don’t get much alone time,” says Gabrielle, daring to hope. 

“But I do love you, Gabrielle,” says Xena, her face inches from Gabrielle’s. Gabrielle breathes in her scent - leather, sweat, and the almond blossom perfume Gabrielle picked up for her a few weeks back.

“We’re alone now,” Gabrielle whispers.

Xena glances at Joxer’s unconscious form by the barn door and then back at Gabrielle. 

“He’s out cold,” Gabrielle says, hoping Xena can’t sense her eagerness. “You got him good.”

Xena chuckles and pulls Gabrielle into a hug. “What about the stablehand?” she whispers into Gabrielle’s hair. Gabrielle shivers and curls her fingers into the curve of Xena’s waist.

“Are you really going to let him deter you from kissing me?” 

Xena exhales softly and pulls out of the hug to cradle Gabrielle’s face in her hands again. Slowly, softly, she presses her lips into Gabrielle’s.

It’s sweet, and it’s gentle, and it’s much too delicate of a kiss for the fire building inside Gabrielle. She crushes her lips against Xena’s in an attempt to pick up the pace. Xena pulls away, her hands moving back down to Gabrielle’s wrists, pinning them at her sides.

“Did you want me to do something other than kiss you?” Xena asks with a smirk, hovering over her like a hungry wolf. 

“Mmph,” Gabrielle says, nodding fervently. 

Xena lets go of her and rolls away. 

“You won’t remember it,” she says, standing up, “and I want to give you a night you’ll never forget.”

Gabrielle shivers. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going back to work on stopping this feud,” Xena says. “Now that I have motivation. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Right,” says Gabrielle, disheveled and disappointed. “I’ll just be here.”

* * *

Xena has been in a weird mood all day, and Gabrielle has no idea why. 


	2. Chapter 2

“Okay, I get that the day is repeating, but why can’t I remember it?”

The tired look on Xena’s face tells Gabrielle that this is not the first time she’s heard this question.

“Sorry,” Gabrielle says, raising her hands apologetically. “It’s my first time.”

Xena laughs. Gabrielle’s shoulders relax, relieved that Xena isn’t annoyed by all her questions. In fact, she seems to be in a better mood than Gabrielle would expect her to be, given the circumstances. 

Gabrielle has gotten used to stoic smiles and sideways looks whenever she jokes around Xena; very rarely does the warrior laugh. She sometimes wonders why Xena doesn’t let herself laugh. Maybe it’s the idea of having a moment of pleasure… But Gabrielle knows that Xena indulges in other pleasures with other people.

“Look,” says Xena, “I can go out and get you something to eat, but you have to stay here.”

Gabrielle crosses her arms. “Absolutely not. I’m coming with you.” Xena opens her mouth to argue, but Gabrielle says, “I’ll stick with you the whole time. What, you don’t think you can protect me from a small-time feud?”

Xena’s expression becomes sorrowful, and she turns away from Gabrielle. 

“Oh,” says Gabrielle. She looks down at her lap, chastened and horrified by the idea of her own death, and of Xena having to go through it only to wake up next to her as if it never happened. “I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago,” Xena says, which scares Gabrielle even more because  _ how long has Xena been stuck in this cycle?  _ Then Xena smiles and reaches down to pull Gabrielle up out of the hay. “All right, then. I know the safe routes where we won’t run into any conflict. But you have to stick with me.”

“I will,” Gabrielle says. “I promise.”

Xena gives Gabrielle a tight smile and takes her hand. 

Outside of the barn, Gabrielle can hear shouting and the clashing of swords in the distance. Xena tugs her in the opposite direction of the conflict, squeezing her hand so hard it almost hurts. Gabrielle doesn’t mind. It’s not often she gets to be in constant contact with Xena. But then, it’s not often Xena is in such a good mood. 

As they weave through the village, Gabrielle sneaks glances at Xena and twice catches Xena doing the same. Gabrielle quickly looks away, but not before she sees the hidden smile on the warrior’s face. 

At Gabrielle’s objection to goose eggs, Xena takes her to a vendor selling freshly baked nutbread - Gabrielle’s favorite, and somewhat of an indulgence. But if the day is repeating, then the few dinars they have between them will replenish tomorrow, so it doesn’t really matter. What matters more to Gabrielle is that Xena is being especially nice to her today, laughing at her jokes, holding her hand, paying for her favorite food… And now she’s whistling. 

Xena is only ever in this good of a mood the day after she spends the night with someone.

Gabrielle isn’t an idiot. As they make their way back to the barn, she puts all the pieces together and sends a silent plea to Aphrodite that she isn’t wrong. 

“Xena?”

“Mm?”

They reach the barn. Gabrielle leans against the door for support - and because she can’t go in until she finds out the truth. 

“Did we… um, yesterday, that is, today, but the yesterday version of today, did something happen?”

Xena lets go of Gabrielle’s hand and turns to face her. “A lot of things happened,” she says, giving Gabrielle her trademark mysterious smile. Gabrielle’s heart pounds. She steels herself to ask the question forthright. 

“Did we sleep together?”

Xena’s eyes widen. That’s all Gabrielle needs to see to know that this is a conversation they need to have right now. She opens the barn door and pulls Xena inside, almost tripping over Joxer’s unconscious form on the way in.

“We slept together, and I don’t remember it?”

“No,” Xena says. And Gabrielle doesn’t know what she feels. Relief that she didn’t miss out on their first time… Disappointment that nothing happened between them… Anxiety about having guessed incorrectly. Before she can figure out what to say, how to take it back, Xena says, “but we kissed.”

“We kissed?” repeats Gabrielle, dumbfounded, having gone through every emotion in the span of a few seconds. She wants to sit down. Instead, she starts pacing, kicking straw out of her way.

“Yes,” says Xena. Gabrielle can hear the smile in her voice, but she doesn’t let herself be giddy yet. There are a few things to sort out first.

“On purpose?”

Xena laughs. “It definitely wasn’t an accident. We were lying right there.” She points to the hay that had served as their bed last night. 

Gabrielle stops, looks at the hay, looks at Xena. “So you’re telling me I missed our first kiss?”

“We’ve kissed before,” Xena reminds her.

“You were dead! It doesn’t count! I remember there being distinctly more mustache involved than I would have preferred.”

“Gabrielle,” Xena says softly. Like a sailor lured in by the song of a siren, Gabrielle goes to her. “I don’t want to do anything with you until I’m out of this loop. I want us both to remember it.”

Gabrielle looks up at her pleadingly. “At least show me what I missed.”

Xena’s eyes have never been bluer. She takes Gabrielle by the hand and leads them to the hay.

“Lie down,” she commands. Gabrielle does, her stomach full of butterflies. Xena joins her and takes her face in her hands, first kissing one cheek, then the other. “This is how it started,” Xena whispers before planting a kiss on Gabrielle’s forehead. 

“And then?” Gabrielle says, her heart ready to burst out of her chest.

Xena smiles again and slowly, softly presses her lips against Gabrielle’s. Gabrielle kisses her back, matching her tenderness. She curls her fingers into the curve of Xena’s waist as Xena’s hand slides into her hair and catches on a tangle. Gabrielle gasps, not expecting that to feel so good. And suddenly this slow pace isn’t enough, especially now that her mouth is open and Xena’s tongue is brushing against her lower lip…

Xena pulls back, leaving Gabrielle open-mouthed and panting. “We didn’t get this far yesterday.”

“Please,” Gabrielle whispers, “kiss me today and remind me again tomorrow.”

Xena hovers over her, looking for all the world like a hungry wolf about to devour her prey. But her abiding self-control keeps her from giving into her desire even as her eyes rake over Gabrielle’s body.

Gabrielle wants Xena to let herself feel freely. How long has she been reliving the same day, unable to move forward? How lonely she must be with no one to share the experience.

Gabrielle caresses Xena’s face, pulling the warrior’s gaze to her own. It’s selfish, she thinks, to deny herself and her warrior pleasure just because she won’t remember it tomorrow. 

She doesn’t even know if there will be a tomorrow, or if it will just be today, and today, and today. A living Tartarus. If Gabrielle can give Xena even a moment of reprieve from the monotony, she will gift it freely. And Xena is otherwise so hard to shop for. 

“I want you,” Gabrielle says. “Let me touch you.”

Xena shakes her head, some part of her still holding back. “You won’t remember.”

“But you will. You’re going to get out of this loop, Xena. And I’ll still want you as much then as I do now.” Gabrielle isn’t sure how much sense she’s making, but Xena’s pride is too great for her to make the argument that she just wants Xena to let herself give in to her desire.

So instead of using words, which up until now have been her primary weapon in the art of getting her way, she pulls Xena’s hair the same way Xena pulled hers a minute ago and watches her eyes roll back. 

“You like that?” whispers Gabrielle. 

“Gabrielle…” 

Gabrielle pulls harder, watching Xena squirm with fascination. “I’m not going to change my mind. Let me make you feel good.”

Something in Xena snaps. In a moment, she’s straddling Gabrielle, pinning her wrists down with one hand and tracing her collarbone with the other. Gabrielle shivers and tries to wriggle her hands free so she can get back to figuring out how to get Xena to make that face again. Xena smirks at her, unyielding. 

Gabrielle wants to scream in frustration. The back-and-forth of Xena’s finger on her collarbone leaves her skin tingling. She takes a shuddering breath and whispers, “Please.” 

Then Xena kisses her again, and everything feels good - lips and teeth and tongue, and her hands, all over Gabrielle’s body, overwhelming her senses. She can hear herself making desperate little noises, but she doesn’t care. 

She unbuckles the straps of Xena’s leathers and lets the top fall to expose the slip Xena wears underneath. Xena’s nipples are hard under the thin fabric, and Gabrielle touches them hesitantly. The noise Xena makes is encouragement enough to be bolder in her experimentation, and soon she figures out exactly how to get Xena to keep making those noises. 

She doesn’t know why she was ever worried about not knowing what to do. Her hands seem to know where to go even though her brain seems to have shut off. She follows Xena’s moans down her body, pushing the leathers as far down as she can with Xena still straddling her.

“Take this off,” Gabrielle says. Xena rolls off of Gabrielle and lifts her hips to pull the garment off, but her boots block it from going any further. Gabrielle laughs and assists Xena in taking off first her boots, then her leathers. 

She pulls back and looks at Xena, her warrior, lying beneath her, disheveled and panting, hay in her hair, wearing nothing but her slip, and looking back at her with an expression Gabrielle has only ever seen from the sidelines. The power of that gaze, the passion in it, leaves Gabrielle breathless. She kneels between Xena’s legs, running her hands along her thighs and under her slip. 

“I love you, Xena.”

She holds her breath, suddenly terrified that this - this moment that means everything to Gabrielle, even if she doesn’t remember it later - is nothing more than a roll in the hay for Xena. But then Xena smiles, her sharp features softening to an expression Gabrielle knows is reserved only for her.

“I love you too, Gabrielle.”

Gabrielle holds back tears of relief as she leans down to kiss Xena again, to seal this declaration between them. Xena lifts her head to meet her, as if she’s unable to wait even the few milliseconds it will take for Gabrielle to reach her. Their lips meet, and Gabrielle pulls the straps of Xena’s slip down over her shoulders, and -

“Sweet Equestra!”

Gabrielle jumps up and grabs her staff, her startled brain interpreting this interruption as an ambush. Before she can step into a fighting stance, Xena touches her leg, sitting up and holding her shift up over her breasts.

“It’s just the farrier,” she says. 

The gods-damned horse-shoer opens his mouth and stammers, “I’m - I ... I hope I’m not interrupting something!”

“You are,” Gabrielle says through gritted teeth. Behind her, Xena laughs. Gabrielle turns to glare at her companion, who, of all people, should understand her frustration. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, looking genuinely apologetic and more than a little bit embarrassed, “but I need to work in here.” He can’t meet their eyes. “The horses need shoeing.”

“I understand completely,” Xena says, somehow calm and collected when not a minute ago she was panting with desire. “I have to get to work, too.” She stands up and pulls her leathers back on. “Gabrielle, help me buckle this.”

“Xena,” Gabrielle protests. Xena takes her hand and kisses her fingers.

“Tomorrow,” she promises.


	3. Chapter 3

Xena has been in a great mood all day, and Gabrielle has no idea why. 

Yesterday had been a day like any other, or at least, Gabrielle assumes so. She spent most of it on her own, waiting for Xena to return from taking care of whatever important business it was she had to do. When Xena finally returned in the evening, she went straight to bed and promised to explain everything in the morning. 

But this morning, instead of explaining anything, she decided to take Gabrielle fishing, and here they are now: Xena barefoot in the water and grinning at every catch, and Gabrielle more focused on Xena’s odd behavior than the present activity. 

“When are you going to let me in on it?” she finally asks. 

“Shh! You’ll scare away all the fish.”

“Xena, I’m serious. I’m starting to worry.”

Xena’s grin fades slightly. “Worrying is the last thing you need to do right now, Gabrielle.”

“You’re acting like you ate Meg’s mushroom dinner special. Why shouldn’t I worry?”

“Because,” Xena says, setting down her fishing rod and taking a deliberate step toward Gabrielle. She doesn’t finish her sentence, worrying Gabrielle more. Why is Xena acting so un-Xena-like?

“Because?” Gabrielle has to crane her neck to look at Xena now that she’s so close. In general she tries to keep her distance from Xena so that she doesn’t become flustered, overwhelmed by the warrior’s presence and her own desire. She starts to take a step back to compose herself, but Xena catches her by the waist and pulls her body flush against her own.

Her heart pounds. She can’t look up at Xena now, can’t let Xena see how red she is, how much she wants this to be real and not Xena having some kind of breakdown. She stares straight ahead, which is directly at Xena’s breasts, which fluster her further. “Xena?”

Xena cups her cheek in her sword hand and lifts her chin until their eyes meet. Gabrielle gasps at the tenderness she sees in Xena’s eyes in the brief moment before Xena leans down and kisses her.

This is everything she wants, everything she’s ever wanted, and it’s not fair that it’s happening now, when Xena is so clearly under some kind of influence. It takes everything Gabrielle has not to cling to Xena and kiss her back, but she resists. Her arms hang limp at her sides, and she holds back tears as Xena pulls away.

“Gabrielle?” Xena looks so uncertain, so fragile, as though her leather armor is the only thing holding her together. Gabrielle has never seen her like this, and it scares her more. 

“Xena, what’s gotten into you?” she whispers, wide-eyed and terrified. 

Xena sighs and steps back. Puts on the mask she wears when she doesn’t want anyone to know what she’s feeling. Gabrielle reaches for her hand despite herself, as if to say, _Whatever it is that is affecting you, we’ll deal with it together._

Xena takes her hand, squeezes her fingers, and gives her a tight smile. 

Then she explains.

* * *

“So you’re telling me I missed our first kiss _twice_?”

“We’ve kissed before,” Xena explains with the weariness of one who has already had this conversation.

“What, when you were dead? Xena, that hardly counts. Or did you forget that you were in Autolycus’s body at the time?”

“Gabrielle,” Xena says softly. Like a sailor helplessly following the call of a siren, Gabrielle goes to her. “The other day, I made a promise to you, and even though you don’t remember it, I intend to keep it.”

Xena leads her by the hand to a blanket beneath the shade of two trees, away from the sandy beach and out of the hot sun. They sit down side by side, and Xena holds Gabrielle’s hand in hers, palm up, delicately tracing the whorl of her fingerprints. Gabrielle’s indignance melts away. “What was the promise?”

Xena pulls her hand to her lips and kisses her palm, looking Gabrielle squarely in the eyes. “To show you what you missed.”

Everything else melts away as heat floods through Gabrielle’s body. She’s seen Xena look at others with such intensity, but she’s never been on the receiving end, and now she’s certain that Xena must be some kind of siren. There’s no other way she could have this kind of effect on Gabrielle. 

“Don’t tell me I missed more than a kiss,” Gabrielle whimpers as Xena climbs on top of her, one leg on each side of Gabrielle’s body so she can feel the heat of Xena’s body on hers. Gabrielle lies back, and Xena goes with her.

“You’re almost caught up,” she says before kissing each of Gabrielle’s cheeks and then her forehead. Gabrielle curls her fingers into Xena’s waist and waits for Xena to catch her the rest of the way up.

Xena’s mask is gone. Gabrielle thinks she can read her thoughts now: _This is real_. And yet, still, doubt. As though she thinks that the Gabrielle from all those yesterdays is different from Gabrielle as she is today. As though she thinks that Gabrielle might change her mind. 

In all Gabrielle’s imaginings of them in this position (and so many others similar to this), she never factored in Xena’s guilt. Perhaps this is why the words fall out of her mouth before she can consider the repercussions. “I love you, Xena.”

Xena’s breath catches. Gabrielle reaches up and tucks a stay lock of hair behind Xena’s ear, stroking a razor-sharp cheekbone with her thumb. 

“Gabrielle,” she whispers, wonder in her face even though this is something she must already have known, “I love you too.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Xena cracks a smile and finally - _finally!_ \- kisses Gabrielle. 

It’s an innocent kiss, until it’s not. Xena’s hands slide into Gabrielle’s hair and pull, not hard, but enough to make her gasp. She didn’t know she would like _that_. But maybe she would like anything, if Xena were the one to do it to her.

Xena slips her tongue into Gabrielle’s open mouth, and the heat that has already spread through Gabrielle’s body washes over her a second time, pleasurable and exciting and so very new. Now their kisses are not tender or gentle or even precise. Gabrielle tangles her hands into Xena’s hair to see if she can make her gasp the same way and finds, to her delight, that she can. She wonders what other secrets she will discover today. 

“Remind me,” she says when they break for air, “what happened next?”

The look Xena gives her is lecherous. In one swift motion, she has Gabrielle’s wrists pinned down above her head. She hovers over her, traces her fingers lightly over her collarbone, grinning at her like a wolf who has her dinner cornered. 

Gabrielle tries to get her hands free so she can return to touching Xena, but Xena is stronger, and Gabrielle is helpless in her grasp. The lines Xena traces on her clavicle leave a sensation in their wake that’s almost like tickling, but somehow different. Gabrielle squirms, feeling all at once oversensitive and desperate for more sensation. She looks up at her warrior and whispers, “Please,” not even fully aware of what she’s asking for.

Xena chuckles. “That’s what you said last time.”

“Sorry for being so predictable,” Gabrielle says, glaring at her captor. “How much more happened that I don’t remember?” She can’t but help feel a little jealous of the version of herself who has already gotten to enjoy this experience. 

“Just this,” Xena says, letting Gabrielle’s wrists go and unbuckling one of the straps of her leather. Then she pauses, her hands hovering over the other strap. “Actually, I think you did this part.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Gabrielle mutters, loud enough that Xena hears it and laughs. She reaches behind Xena to unlace the back, and her breath catches at this intimate embrace. It’s not like they’ve never hugged before, not like Gabrielle hasn’t helped Xena undress hundreds of times, but her face is pressed up against Xena’s neck, and the smell of leather, sweat, and the slightest trace of almond blossom threatens to overwhelm her. She breathes Xena in anyway, presses a kiss to her neck, and then reluctantly pulls back to unbuckle the other strap and tug the garment down. “Take it off,” she says.

Xena rolls off of her and lifts her hips to pull her leathers all the way off. “This is where we left off,” she says, reaching over to play with the laces on Gabrielle’s shirt. Gabrielle senses the slightest hesitation in her movements, as though she thinks Gabrielle will take it back now that she knows what she missed. 

Something about Xena’s uncertainty comforts Gabrielle, gives her the extra boost of confidence she needs. She leans over Xena, tugs the laces loose, lets her shirt fall down her shoulders.

They’ve bathed together plenty of times, but Xena stares up at Gabrielle as though she’s seeing her for the first time. Gabrielle blushes and stares back, enthralled by the tented outlines of Xena’s nipples under her slip. Hesitantly, she reaches down and touches them through the fabric, encouraged by the nodding of Xena’s head and even more encouraged by the sound she makes when Gabrielle rolls a nipple experimentally between her thumb and index finger.

She has always worried that if they ever got to this point she wouldn’t know what to do. No such thoughts come to her now. On instinct, she pushes Xena’s slip down to expose her breasts and replaces hands with mouth, following the instructions dictated by Xena’s raspy moans.

Xena hears it before Gabrielle. She sits up abruptly, knocking Gabrielle away.

“Ow,” Gabrielle says, even though she isn’t in any pain. Xena hushes her.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what? I -” and now she does hear it. The unmistakable clanking of metal armor and clumsy footsteps that signify the approach of the very last person she wants to see right now. She groans. 

“Joxer,” Xena confirms with a grimace, quickly pulling her slip back on. “You’d better put that back on, unless you’d like an audience.” Gabrielle makes a face at her and pulls her shirt back on, quickly lacing it up with shaking hands. As much as she loves to perform, she’d rather keep today’s events between herself and her almost-lover. 

“There you two are!” Joxer shouts as he emerges from the brush. “I’ve been looking for you! You disappeared after breakfast - I looked all over the village before I realized you were probably off on important business, fighting some evil warlord or saving a princess or something. You could have asked me for help, you know.” He finally actually looks at them, but no recognition registers on his face. “What were you doing?”

Gabrielle and Xena share a look. A smile tugs at the corner of Xena’s mouth.

“Warlord,” Xena says, “like you said.”

“Well why didn’t you take me with you?” Joxer asks, exasperated.

Gabrielle jumps in. “He was a small-time warlord. We didn’t want to bother you with a fight that was so far beneath you.” She elbows Xena when she hears her snickering next to her.

Joxer straightens out and smiles. “Well, of course,” he says, his voice deepening into a faux manly timbre. “Joxer the mighty can’t be bothered with simple thugs.” He looks at Xena, confused. “Why are you out of your armor?”

“We went fishing,” Xena says.

“Great! I’ll get a fire started,” Joxer says. “I’m starving!”

As he stomps toward the beach, clanking and clanging all the way, Xena looks at Gabrielle with an inscrutable expression. 

“We can get rid of him again,” Gabrielle suggests.

Xena sighs. “It’s never the right time,” she says to herself. She glances at Joxer, who is too busy collecting kindling in the brush to pay them any mind. She pulls Gabrielle to her, stealing a searing kiss that leaves Gabrielle lightheaded when she pulls back. “Tonight,” she promises, her hands white-hot on the small of Gabrielle’s back. “No distractions.”

“Tonight,” Gabrielle echoes, wondering if she will be able to last a few more hours after knowing the feeling of Xena’s hands on her, after hearing the noises Xena makes, after knowing that Xena loves her too. 

“You can do it,” Xena says with a smirk, apparently reading the doubt and frustration on Gabrielle’s face. 

Gabrielle glares at her, unappreciative of her blase condescension. “Only if you can keep me from killing Joxer right now.”

Xena laughs, her good mood somehow still intact. “Why would I want to stop you from doing that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops! this was supposed to only be three chapters. sorry about that, and sorry this chapter took so long. chapter four will be up in a week or so.


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